Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency by Andy Greenberg

Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency

by Andy Greenberg

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Crime & JusticeTech & Future

Wired's Andy Greenberg on the rise of blockchain forensics — Chainalysis, federal investigators, academic cryptographers — and the takedown of major dark-web operations once "anonymous" Bitcoin turned out to be traceable.

Core ideas
  • Bitcoin's public ledger is the opposite of anonymous if you have the analytical tools; the libertarian-utopian assumption that crypto was unforgeable cover was naive from the start.
  • The cases narrated — Silk Road 2, AlphaBay, Welcome to Video (CSAM), Bitfinex hack — show the same pattern: the chain remembers what users assume it forgets.
  • The cat-and-mouse dynamic is moving toward more sophisticated privacy coins and mixers, but the analytic edge has so far stayed with investigators.
Published2022
Pages367
ISBN9780385548106
ReadJun 2023
cryptocurrency, true crime, narrative nonfiction

Connected to 7 other books

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